The Ecclesiazusae

Longest word

The play contains the longest word in Greek, transliterated as:

Lopado­temacho­selacho­galeo­kranio­leipsano­drimhypo­trimmato­silphio­karabomelito­katakechymeno­kichlepikossyphophatto­peristeralektryonopte­kephallio­kigklopeleio­lagoiosiraio­baphetragano­pterygon,

or, in the Greek alphabet:

λοπαδο­τεμαχο­σελαχο­γαλεο­κρανιο­λειψανο­δριμυπο­τριμματο­σιλφιο­καραβομελιτο­κατα­κεχυμενο­κιχλεπικοσσυφοφαττο­περιστεραλεκτρυονοπτο­κεφαλλιο­κιγκλοπελειο­λαγῳοσιραιο­βαφητραγανο­πτερύγων. (1169–74)

Jeffrey Henderson translated the word as a stew of "limpets and saltfish and sharksteak and dogfish and mullets and oddfish with savory pickle sauce and thrushes with blackbirds and various pigeons and roosters and pan-roasted wagtails and larks and nice chunks of hare marinated in mulled wine and all of it drizzled with honey and silphium and vinegar, oil and spices galore."[2] The Greek word contains 171 letters, which far surpasses that of Shakespeare's 27-letter long word, "honorificabilitudinitatibus" in his Love's Labour's Lost V.I.


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